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Top players will want to be paid more, says Arsenal chief

IF ANYONE thought that football could not get any more crazy, then Ivan Gazidis, chief executive of Arsenal, the north London team, has bad news.

Some clubs do not seem to have noticed a recession. Real Madrid has spent the best part of £150m on two players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. Others, such as Manchester's two sides, are linked daily with players likely to cost tens of millions.

At Arsenal, where Gazidis took charge in January after helping to run Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US for 14 years, the club does not have the luxury of being able to lavish such sums. The chief executive warns, however, that while transfer fees have reached stellar levels, player wages are also likely to leap.

"There's probably potential for upward movement in player salaries at the very highest end," he said. "Transfer fees don't seem to correlate with player salaries. The